Tim McCarver to St. Louis? Yes, Please and Other Bullets

St_Louis_CardinalsThe Winter Meetings begin on Monday, but this past week may as well have been the protracted start. There was far more activity this past week than at the Winter Meetings last year – or in any week I can remember, really – and I’d expect there to be plenty more next week at the meetings. In any event, the point here is that there will be plenty to discuss this weekend, and you’re going to see a great deal more written today than on a usual Saturday. If you’re holed up from a snowstorm, settle in, grab a cup, and be ready.

  • Please let this happen: a report out of St. Louis has the Cardinals reaching out to Tim McCarver, who just left the national scene in 2013, to join their broadcast booth next year. The possibility that McCarver – with his unique brand of calling games – could be paired with the Cardinals going forward is a possibility that my contempt bone can barely stand. Best fans, best team, best broadcaster. I’m not sure how anyone could survive that level of anointed superiority.
  • Be reminded: there’s a free fantasy football contest going on right now. It’s pretty simple: sign up here, pick your team, have some fun, win some cash. (Full details here.)
  • Jeff Passan digs into how a recent lawsuit details what it’s like for some players to defect to Cuba before joining MLB. The word “handlers,” in some cases, might as well be exchanged for “armed kidnappers.” There was a bizarre, “human trafficking” twist in the Jorge Soler story in 2012 – though very indirectly, and without any negative claims with respect to Soler’s defection, specifically. Hopefully, with Cuba opening up a bit, the defection stories will be less fraught with shadiness and fright.
  • Jay’s got the latest Bears Bullets getting you ready for Monday’s game.
  • BN’er Oswego Chris – he of the ‘105 Reasons’ Cubs book – is holding a contest on the Message Board in the run-up to Christmas, and you can win a free copy of his book just by being clever. Check out the details in Chris’s post, and enter the contest. It’s easy. And funny.
  • Speaking of funny, nice inadvertent work in the comments, gents:
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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